Decision report 201100663

Summary
Ms C lives alone in a three bedroom council property, one of a four-in-a-block. She wanted a transfer to move to a two bedroom house in the same town. After eight years she had not received an offer. She was, therefore, unhappy when another person in similar circumstances obtained a transfer to a two bedroom house. She understood that this person had received assistance from the council to move, under a Transfer Incentive Programme that Ms C did not know about.

Our investigation found that when the programme was introduced, the council identified certain tenants suitable for the scheme who lived in under-occupied properties and wrote to them offering an incentive to move to a smaller property. They did not offer this to Ms C and did not publicise the programme, but we did not find this unreasonable in the circumstances of the scheme and did not uphold the complaint. The council also told us that the person in similar circumstances did not receive such assistance. We did, however, uphold her complaint about the council’s complaints handling, in that first of all they did not respond and then when they did, they did not adequately explain the position.